Moore sparks Stringer to crown

Nov. 30, 2012

Stringer quarterback Tevin Moore ran for 222 yards and scored the winning touchdown in the final minutes of Friday's Class 1A state title game victory over French Camp. / Chris Todd/Special to The Clarion-Ledger

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The visitor’s locker room at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium was a solemn space during halftime of Friday’s MHSAA Class 1A state championship game.

Trailing 10-6 and still befuddled over a bizarre ending to the half that saw their drive end, in part, because of a whistle blown in the stands, Stringer players retreated to their locker room with a sense of disbelief.

“If you would have seen their faces at halftime, they thought they were beat,” Stringer coach Marlon Brannan said.

Brannan spent the next 20 minutes urging his team to continue to fight.

No one took those words more to heart than quarterback Tevin Moore.

Moore rushed for a game-high 222 yards and two touchdowns, doing the bulk of his damage in a back-and-forth second half, to propel Stringer to a 20-17 victory over French Camp Academy. It’s the fourth state title for Stringer (13-2), but the first since its three-peat from 1990-92.

Brannan, who played on two of those state title teams, said Friday’s title might have been the sweetest.

“Football’s changed a lot in 20 years,” Brannan said. “When I was a player, I don’t think any of us realized how special it was. That was a three-peat and it just seemed like we were supposed to be there every year. I know, after spending the last 13-14 years trying to get here, how special it is.”

Both of Moore’s touchdowns — along with 149 of his rushing yards — came in the second half. It was his 19-yard scamper down the visitor’s sideline with 2:39 remaining that gave the Red Devils their winning margin just minutes after French Camp quarterback Jesse Hosket gave the Panthers a 17-13 lead on a 4-yard TD run with 4:50 left.

French Camp had designs on a last-second rally, but Stringer sophomore defensive back Mason Avary picked off Hosket’s pass deep in Red Devil territory to seal the win. It was one of the few mistakes for Hosket, who threw for 75 yards and a TD and rushed for 64 yards and another score.

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French Camp outgained Stringer 367-311, but it was three lost fumbles that proved costly for the Panthers, who left Jackson still searching for the program’s first state title.

French Camp saw one promising drive stopped late in the third when, trailing 13-10 at the Red Devils’ 23, Hosket was stripped of the ball by Stringer defensive back Lorenzo Crosby. In a game that saw four lead changes, including three in the second half, every stop proved critical.

“We were the ones that made the mistakes and that cost us,” French Camp coach Nathan Wright said. “We fought hard, it’s been a good run.”

“Hats off to French Camp because they have a heck of a team,” Brannan said. “It just so happened the buzzer ran out when we were ahead because it was back and forth.”

Moore’s 51-yard TD run late in the third gave Stringer a 13-10 advantage and its first lead since opening the game with a 28-yard field goal by Cade Hinton that was set up by a fumbled French Camp punt. The Panthers looked to have things in hand in the first half thanks to the play of running back Jaylon Clemons. It was Clemons’ 3-yard touchdown run late in the first that gave French Camp a 7-3 lead.

Clemons, who entered the game with 1,363 yards and 15 TDs on the ground, ran for 208 yards and that 3-yard TD. His 65-yard run in the fourth set up Hosket’s short TD run that, for a moment, had those in blue believing they were about to witness history.

Instead, Moore dashed those hopes with a run of his own, keeping the ball on an option-read, bouncing around the right end and tiptoeing the final 3 yards into the end zone. Moore finishes the year with 2,256 yards and 41 rushing TDs. Brannan joked that half of those totals came in the playoffs. For Moore, it was just another game.

“I know if I get the ball, the team’s behind me,” Moore said. “I did what I do best.”